After our class trip on Tuesday, I have been thinking a lot about meditation and how I can incorporate it into my life. I am a perfectionist and pride myself on efficiency. This often comes into conflict when I am making art as the artistic process does not always turn out the way you expected. It also makes it hard to sit in one place for long without a task to complete.
Each time I visited my Alien Walk site, I had to constantly remind myself to stay present in the moment and focus on the things happening in the space. It was challenging to be in one place for an hour and not think about the other assignments I needed to work on. In order to keep my attention on the space, I tried stream of conscious writing and doodling in my sketchbook.
Today I completed day two of morning mediations. I can already see how this will be a challenging daily exercise for me. It actually frustrates me that I feel as though I cannot spare ten minutes to sit in silence and reflection. My hope is that by continuing this practice, I will find it easier to take the time in other areas of my life, such as my art work.
Each time I visited my Alien Walk site, I had to constantly remind myself to stay present in the moment and focus on the things happening in the space. It was challenging to be in one place for an hour and not think about the other assignments I needed to work on. In order to keep my attention on the space, I tried stream of conscious writing and doodling in my sketchbook.
Today I completed day two of morning mediations. I can already see how this will be a challenging daily exercise for me. It actually frustrates me that I feel as though I cannot spare ten minutes to sit in silence and reflection. My hope is that by continuing this practice, I will find it easier to take the time in other areas of my life, such as my art work.
I would imagine that Coop would be an "advanced" location for meditating.
ReplyDeleteWhen we meditated outdoors, it was still easy to feel distracted, even though there was far less manmade noise and activity. As you've experienced through your observation time at Coop, in can provide "sensory overload" because of the constant stream of moving people who are talking and laughing, the background rumble of industrial machines, and the employees calling out orders over the din. It's not exactly designed to be a quiet and peaceful place.
However, your attempts at meditating there represent a more realist approach, in a way. During a school week it's unlikely that you'd make it out to Henri's Cabin, but if you can manage to center yourself and identify your daily -- or even hourly -- focus in a place as busy as Coop, then you're doing a good job.
I'm curious to hear if you have learned anything new about the room by meditating inside of it! Did you feel more connected or less connected to the space? Like Maria mentioned, Coop is always busy, so I'm very impressed you were able to let go of distractions for as long as you did. Awesome job!
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